Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Sonnenträger could only look up toward the risen skeleton, face partly covered in his own golden blood, too tired to even be shocked.

"How?" he asked in a low tone toward the pristine white skeleton, even though no longer affected by gold, Loimos seemed to have yet to recover his full capabilities as the power of primeval rot did not manifest itself.

The hero was not expecting an answer from the undead, but surprisingly, Loimos sat down cross legged into front of him, hollow sockets illuminated with purple, facing eyes shining with green.

"I have allies" he simply responded in his usual tone, absent of all emotions and feelings, and suddenly, the purple glow faded away, leaving only the empty darkness within his sockets.

"Aah…" the hero did not respond to this, but it made him realise that he did not have any real allies, in fact, he had never had any real allies, ever.

He was far more powerful than anyone else around him, so it would have made no sense to team up against threats that could be handled by him alone, but indeed, the same could be said about Loimos, he was so dreadfully powerful that it was unlikely that any other of his fellows undeads could keep up with him, but he still had the empire backing him up.

"I didn't expect… That I would fail because of this…" he forced out, coughing up blood in the process.

"You know… I was thinking of using an ability I developed thanks to my hero status, but it doesn't matter anymore, I am too weak to do anything- Congratulations, Loimos… You won this fight"

The undead did not respond or react in any way.

"Do not believe for a second that this world belongs to the undead just because you defeated me, I am just one man, no matter how powerful I may be, in the end, I was just a simple, human man in the beginning, another one, or multiple of them could take my place… Or maybe, the collective efforts of many will prove to be enough… Who knows?"

"All this to say… Good luck in your endeavours, I suppose… I guess that we- I guess that we might meet again, one day, Apostle of Mov"

Following this, Sonnenträger went silent and simply lowered his head, staring at the ground as was feeling himself dying.

Loimos rose from the ground, straightening one hand into a flat palm.

"Sonnenträger, you were the strongest" the hero rose his head up one last time, forming a small smile before the undead swung his hand, sending his adversary's head rolling onto the ground, the golden one's remains turned into particles of gold, all of it disappearing in an instant, leaving nothing behind as a flood of festering death coursed through Loimos, certainly, slaying such a remarkable being was an incredible feat, especially since Sonnenträger had indeed been the strongest of the two combatants, but something was different.

Not only did potent death force, more powerful than anything the skeleton had ever wielded before, took root within him, returning to him his full powers, rot weaving itself into his usual suit of armour and dark mantle, he sensed that the primeval rot was changed, having consumed the information concerning Sonnenträger's golden body and golden force, the whole of Loimos seemed to have improved to a superior level in an instant.

To the point that the Memory Realm began to tremble, beginning to break around the undead, as it attempted to expel him out of here before everything collapsed, but the destruction quickly ceased as Loimos took full control of his newfound might.

A soft, pale glow washed down from behind the undead, and two, thin translucent arms wrapped around his neck, whilst two other hands softly fell upon his shoulders.

"...Victory is yours, Promised One…"

And in the next instant, Loimos found himself standing in a field of lush, bright blue grass, trees with colourful blossoms visible nearby, and high in the sky, an emerald green sun, casting down a gentle light upon the ground.

Loimos had appeared exactly where he had left the Emerald Realm back then, just like before, the realm attempted to restrain him, but without the undead doing anything, the will of the realm retracted away from him, as though frightened by his newfound strength, the very rules of the realm found themselves unable to apply themselves to him, bowing their heads to the pure undead instead.

His presence rolled across the entire realm, the life barrier shattered instantly as if the bits of life making it up were all scrambling in different directions in an attempt to run from him, that new presence of his was so overwhelming, that Loimos required a bit of time before getting it under his control.

But the effects clearly told everyone that he had returned, and the current battle taking place paused as both livings and undeads ceased all movements.

One side paralysed by unfathomable fear, the other with reverence.

"Lord Loimos! As expected, you triumphed over the foul golden man!" Irlanx Xacobus casually floated past Ioleznta and went to greet Loimos, not realising that 'foul golden man' was absolutely a series of three words that could be used to describe himself as well.

"Lord Loimos" in the next moment, Alistel greeted him as well.

The pure undead would have told them to focus on the fights they were having, but it seemed like the sudden release of his presence on arrival had sapped the will to live out of all of the unsuspecting livings, or at least, frozen most of them stiff with sheer terror, the only ones that seemed to not be totally rattled by his arrival were the two ancestors, but then again, they weren't exactly calm either, Loimos's presence here and the lack thereof of Sonnenträger meant that the skeleton had won and defeated his adversary.

In short, all hope was lost for the future.

Solzmimi and Hirzartanli would have liked to at least secure the century of peace today, but as one could tell, apart from them, all of the living warriors had been deeply affected by his arrival, there was no chance that they would be able to fight well after this, and this hadn't even been purposeful, Loimos had just popped in and accidentally defeated what was left of the Emerald Realm existing nearby.

Even the Divine Dancing Priestesses and Emerald Heralds had been strongly affected, the former had their bestial instincts go into overdrive, frozen in place as they were unable to decide whether to lay low as a show of submission, to fight back like cornered animals or to run away.

The latter had simply had their very bones turn cold, all of the whimsical attitudes drained from them momentarily.

The Emerald Realm had fallen.

Loimos had won.

Sonnenträger had lost.

The Empire's Golden Age had begun.

End Of Volume 6 : Golden Coffin

Start Of Volume 7 : The Golden Age